In the modern day electronic age, there are many practical examples of packet communications. With increasing emphasis on security, there is a need to limit the risk of information sent using packet communications falling into the wrong hands.
Instant messaging (“IM”) systems and applications are well-known, in which data messages are exchanged between users in real-time. Instant messaging systems are also known in which transmitted information is deleted after a given time interval.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,676,929 (Lazaridis) discusses a system and method aimed at causing advertisements to potential customers to appear at different times, citing restaurant advertisements to appear around mealtimes.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,650,256 (Chakra et al.) discusses a method in which information is only displayed to the recipient when the recipient is off-line so as to prevent forwarding of the information to a third party. After a given time the information is deleted.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,461,378 (Beyda) discusses instant messages being received by a device and if a message is unread by the recipient after a given period of time the message is deleted.
US20140032682 (Prado et al.) discusses a deficiency in off the record instant messaging in that if a recipient is off-line at the time of transmission, the message is lost and never received. In their method off the record messages are stored in non-durable memory on a server until a recipient is back on line or a predetermined time has expired. Either way the messages expire from the server.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,464,139 (Malik) discusses a method in which emails are sent to a recipient's device and if the recipient fails to open the email within a given time period the email is deleted from the recipient's device and as an option an alternative message is displayed.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,797,390 (Hagale et al.), received messages by one or more recipients are not stored but displayed, such that they are non-editable, that is not able to be copied or forwarded, for a predetermined duration only.
A common deficiency of the prior art is that all recipients are treated in the same manner, whereas in many instances there is a requirement that recipients be treated differently. For example, in a national security context, recipients have different security clearances. In a commercial context, recipients may be in different locations with varying risks of message interception.
There is therefore a need for a technique to address the aforementioned problems with instant messaging and provide for more robust and adaptive transmission, display and management of content within IM conversations.